Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

60 THE ENVv,.BARRIER OF THE DEVELDPING COUNTRIES
dent" (wealthy) a person might be, he generally believes that everyone
else, no matter how obviously poor, is better off and has accumulated
more money.' One of the worst things a man can do is to inquire into
someone else's financial circumstances. There can be no doubt that this
attitude is a protection against envy. But everyone is filled with insatiable
curiosity regarding such information. Imaginary personal poverty
is generally blamed upon another, presumed or believed to be
richer. The frequent damage to crops caused by hurricane or drought is
still usually attributed to some evil sorcerer at work on behalf of an
envious neighbour. Nearly every villager is convinced that his neighbour
dislikes him and is excessively envious of him. These feelings are, of
course, mutual. It is impossible for several families to pool resources or
tools of any kind in a common undertaking. It is almost equally impossible
for anyone man to adopt a leading role in the interests of the
village. 3
The problem of envy is again brought out clearly in William Watson's
study of social cohesion in an African tribe in Northern Rhodesia,
whose members, through working in the copper mines and in the towns,
are gradually adopting a money economy. These are the Mambwe,
whose cohesion as a tribe in village communities has been far less
impaired than might be expected by the industrial wage labour of many
of its members. Watson made his observations in 1952 and 1953.
There was an ever-present cause for ill-feeling in the fact that competent
men, not belonging to the 'nobility' of a chief's family but having
been educated in a mission school, were able to attain 'wealth' by
personal work in the market economy of their district. The outward sign
of wealth is usually a brick house. A decisive factor in the success of such
people seems often to have been the resolve to leave the area of the chief
where they were born in order to seek their fortunes in some other
3 Y. A. Cohen, 'Four Categories of Interpersonal Relationships in the Family and
Community in a Jamaican Village,' Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 28 (New Series,
Vol. 3), 1955, pp. 121-47. C. S. Rosenthal reports similar actions designed to avert
envy in the Jewish community of a small Polish town before 1938 ('Social Stratification
of the Jewish Community in a Small Polish Town,' American Journal of
Sociology, Vol. 59, 1953, p. 6): 'People were very much afraid of other people's
jealousy. It was pointed out endlessly that you are not allowed to take out other people's
eyes, that is, that one should avoid making others jealous. ' What is remarkable about
this expression is its connection with belief in the 'evil eye. '